Faculty Spotlights

Nebraska professor Cody Hollist has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to study the increasing rate of suicide in Brazil.
Nebraska professor Cody Hollist has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to study the increasing rate of suicide in Brazil.

Nebraska would not be the same without the incredible faculty at the university. This section highlights faculty that have been featured across campus in the last month for their research achievements, academic work, and journey to Nebraska.

Meet some of Nebraska’s incredible faculty, including those who have earned international research awards and national recognition for their impactful work.

International research collaboration highlights benefits of partnerships
Last January, Dr. Sudeep Banerjee received a São Paulo Researchers in International Collaboration (SPRINT) award to explore the possibility of low-energy laser pulses generating high-energy electron beams with partners at the Nuclear and Energy Research Institute (IPEN) in São Paulo, Brazil. Along with his graduate student Dan Haden, Banerjee believes the international partnership has provided multiple benefits for not only the research project, but also cultural exchange, especially after their exchange trip to IPEN in February 2020.
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Fulbright project seeks answers to Brazil’s suicide epidemic
University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher Cody Hollist, an expert in Brazilian family resilience, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award to research factors and solutions for the increasing suicide rate in Brazil. Hollist plans to dig deeper into how public health, cultural and social factors are driving the uptick, and how the COVID-19 pandemic may further exacerbate the trend.
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Velazquez earns Fulbright award
Isabel Velázquez, Harold E. Spencer Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, earned a Fulbright award in São Paulo, Brazil. The award is a one-semester grant to teach and conduct research on the sociolinguistic experience and perceptions of speakers of Venezuelan Spanish at the Universidade de Campinas, one of Brazil's premier research universities.
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Nebraska team links wild wheat gene to drought tolerance in cultivated wheat
New research from Nebraska’s Harkamal Walia, associate professor and Heuermann Chair of Agronomy and Horticulture, and colleagues has led to the discovery of a novel gene that improves drought adaptation in wheat—a breakthrough that could contribute to increased world food security.
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Burnett earns Guggenheim Fellowship
Husker historian Amy Burnett has been named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The fellowship will allow her to pursue scholarship analyzing correspondence among European humanists, pastors and teachers during the Reformation.
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Faculty 101 talks poetry, reggae with Dawes
In the fourth season of UNL’s Faculty 101 podcast, world-renowned poet and editor-in-chief of the Prairie Schooner literary journal Kwame Dawes offers his thoughts on literature’s ability to stir empathy and critical thinking. Born in Ghana and raised from age 10 in Jamaica, Dawes also tells of his enduring fascination with Bob Marley, whose “pure poetics” helped mold his literary aspirations and anchor his sense of heritage.
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Additional Faculty Achievements

  • Hames, international authority on South American indigenous peoples, named to National Academy of Sciences | More
  • Osiri selected for a Reciprocal Exchange grant from the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders | More
  • Storz discovers world’s highest-elevation mammal | More
  • Architecture Dean Ankerson inducted to International Interior Design Association | More
  • Smith named Top Film Educator around the world by Variety magazine | More
  • Grew looks back on impactful, intercontinental career | More
  • Barger elected President-elect of International Clarinet Association | More
To submit a faculty or staff feature for the next edition of the Global Nebraska newsletter, please contact Courtney Van Hoosen in the Office of Global Strategies at cvanhoosen2@unl.edu.